Networking Works! - Member Stories

At the NRG London Christmas Lunch I chatted with Tony Mundella who first came to NRG nearly 10 years ago. Tony runs a specialist consulting practice offering services to franchisors to enable the successful growth and devlopment of a franchise network. He said he would send me a testimonial about how Networking with NRG has helped him and his business.

Here is the story from Tony,

"Not everyone is convinced of the power of networking but I would like to share my own story of one particular contact through an NRG lunch and how it has developed.

In late 2011 I was a regular attendee at the NRG lunches and met with an accountant who suggested that he introduce me to a client of his who was a master licensee in the UK for a U.S. operation and intended to develop and expand the business through franchising.

This led to a small piece of work that I carried out for them in early 2012. I maintained contact with the client over the next couple of years and provided some ad hoc pro bono advice on occasions.

Late in 2014 it was clear that things were not going so well for the client but they did introduce me to the master licensee for Europe, as that is not my area of expertise we exchanged contact details but it went no further.

In 2015 the UK master licensee wound up the business and I again provided some advice and made contact with the U.S. head office as there was one operational franchisee in the U.K. and I wanted to ensure that he was supported. This led to my reconnecting with the European master licensee.

The upshot is that the European master licensee has now taken over the rights to the UK and I am working closely with him to exclusively develop the franchise in this country. I am looking forward to a busy 2017!

It started with a conversation over an NRG lunch and took 5 years to gestate but shows that you can never underestimate where such a meeting can lead. However, it is not enough to just attend the networking events and exchange business cards. It is so important to maintain and nurture the contacts and if you can add value at little cost to yourself (the time on a ‘phone call suggesting options or further contacts) then it can pay off in the long term.

Of course, none of this would have happened if the quality and reach of people attending the networking event had not been of the high calibre that is found at NRG events."

Thanks to Tony for sharing and if you would like to experience how NRG might work for you then come along to one of our networking events.